About St Thomas, VI

Well Toyota 4Runner come, and no, there were no issues with the vehicle. All was the same as I had left it in Reno, NV, except greasy and this random glove on the passenger floor? Viking delivered it to me at the Airport where I have for the last time have given up my Hertz rental car. Wendy was sad and asked I stopped by and say hi whenever I was at the airport. Total cost for having my own car: $5200. Having my own car real value: PRICELESS. I know what I have, know its maintenance and its mine!

As I was driving down the hill to the airport to drop off the rental car, I saw a cruise ship docked at Havensight, it was the ship that Shannon and I first visited St Thomas in January 2009 the Norwegian Gem, the whole reason for how we ended up buying here! Karma?

Well, as I was driving from the airport to go home, Shannon called me about the conference call with our largest client in Reno, NV. They had said with NV bill AB 241, that it would 2-3 years before we would start seeing any new foreclosure inventory! I was like just as I had predicted, we have 30 of our 40 listed REO properties pending. The client was not going to seek judicial foreclosure, only non-judicial. It took me about 1 minute to decide to pull off to the DMV to get my driver's license as mine was expiring in NV in April and I think we both know what the writing is on the wall for NV.

So when you go to get your license, you walk in and there are all these windows with plexiglass, no real direction? So after asking, I finally made it to a window that asked for all my stuff. I showed it to her, she say, "go to cashier". Went to cashier and paid my $45 with my Mastercard and you go wait. So I waited for about 10 mins and then you step into this office. It was so crowded with a desktop pc, digital camera with a mini tripod, finger print machine, eye tester etc. The gal there was so nice, she first asked me, "Mr. Wiseman, how long have you REALLY lived here?" I was laughing, I said, "I honestly just had a whim that I would be living here full time after what happened today. We began talking and told her that I just lost 3 dogs in 4 months, these were our kids and needed a change after our client basically told us we'd be out of business. She was like, "I love my dogs too!" So we both spent about 20 minutes sharing dog stories and pictures from our IPhones!

Here is what you need for the license:

Passport
Social Security Card
Current US Driver License
Driving record for the state you live in (most have it available on-line, just print it out).

Ahhh, guess this is going to be home now! Won't mind with views like this from our home!

First time home buyers in the U.S. Virgin Islands now have a helping hand from the Realtors of the territory and the Virgin Islands Department of Housing Finance.

The National Association of Realtors offered a grant to each state level organization (for us, the Virgin Islands Territorial Association of Realtors or VITAR). The grant is named after Ira Gribin, and is in the amount of $50,000. Two of the conditions for receiving the grant were that the fund had to be self sustaining and also help impact home ownership. Belton Jennings our CEO of VITAR, wrote the grant proposal and secured the funds for the territory. The money will be used to assist with closing cost for first time home buyers.

Closing cost can be prohibitive when you are trying to purchase your first home anywhere. Inspections, lawyers fees, the appraisal, down payment, and insurance is especially high in the Virgin Islands and can take a toll on one's pocket. For a concrete dwelling, insurance can run as high as 2% of the value of the home, annually. If the home is constructed of wood the premium can go as high as 3% of the value, annually. It is rare to find habitable homes valued under $200,000 in the territory, especially if you have a family.

At our annual meeting on St. Croix, Delegate Donna Christensen was in attendance speaking on the importance of preserving the secondary mortgage market and helped to make the presentation of the funds. I was also present, as president of the St. Thomas Board of Realtors, along with BJ Harris, president of the VITAR, Sherrymae Morales, president of the St. Croix Board of Realtors, Adrienne Williams, Interim Executive Director of Housing Finance and Lisa Richards Director of Home Ownership (pictured above).

The seed money will be used to establish loans with a ceiling of $5000 per household for qualified buyers. The loans will be at the very low interest rate of 2%. Half of the interest will go to help cover administrative costs for Housing Finance and the other half will help to perpetuate the fund.

Housing finance can be reached at 777 4432 for more information on these loans.

Relocating to St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, requires getting your belonging to your new home. Because it is often an extreme change in weather and accommodations, some choose to only bring clothing and very personal items. Others want to bring as much as possible with them.

If you want to ship a household of furnishings you will want to start with a moving company to do the packing as well as the shipping. We used Viking . Our home was packed, loaded into a container on a truck at our home on the mainland, delivered to a port and loaded on a ship. Then shipped to St. Thomas, loaded on a truck and unpacked at our new home. The only thing that did not make the trip was a tissue holder that I was probably better off without.

If your have less to ship, you can pack it yourself and have it put on a pallet or a number of pallets and shipped as a portion of a container. Tropical Shipping is a company I have used to import supplies. Contact them in advance, give them the weight and dimensions of what you are shipping and they will let you know what it will cost. Do this close to the time you will ship, as rates change with the cost of fuel. You will be notified when your shipment arrives. You then go to the dock, clear it through customs and make arrangements to get your belongings where you want them on island. This is more labor intensive but a lot less expensive.

For a more gradual, small move, you can send boxes to yourself by the United States Post Office. As an American territory the USPS does deliver mail to the island. For the most part, they do not deliver to private homes, most of us receive our mail via mail boxes. There are many mail box rental facilities on island. You will want to pay for first class mail as parcel post is put on a ship and will take 4-6 weeks to arrive, unless you have the time.

FedEx does ship here, but don't expect it to arrive overnight, they can be reached at 1-877-838-7834. They may even accept your money to deliver it overnight but the reason it often does not make it, is Customs may hold it. Your money will not be refunded if the delay is due to Customs. This is true of Express mail too.

UPS or Big Brown, also ships here. I believe they treat us as an overseas destination. The local number to reach UPS is (340) 776-1700. The cost of calling numbers in St. Thomas from the mainland, is no more than calling from state to state on the mainland.

I provide the local numbers because I have been told in the States, they don't ship to the U.S. Virgin Islands or they want to send it to Puerto Rico, which is only part of the way here. You may have to provide a State side location with the numbers of the local offices. I have also received calls from some bewildered delivery person wandering in Virginia trying to get a package to me, in the VI.

When ordering online, you will often find there is no "U.S. Virgin Islands" in the drop down menu or they won't mail to a mail box. You can get around this by having shipments sent to your work place or having a good friend or family member who will forward things to you from their address on the mainland.

I found it most interesting when I saw a UPS truck parked at the U.S. Post Office in Sugar Estates today, which inspired this blog. When I questioned the driver, he told me they deliver everywhere!